had
gained the precious sense of youthfulness and of capacity for action when
she had to depend on herself. The last few hours had revealed to her the
possession of powers which only yesterday she had never suspected. She,
who had willingly yielded to every caprice of her father's, and who, for
love of her brothers, had always unresistingly done their bidding, now
knew that she had a will of her own and strength enough to assert it; and
this, again, added to her contentment this morning.

Alexander had told her, and old Dido, and Diodoros, that she was fair to
look upon--but these all saw her with the eyes of affection; so she had
always believed that she was a well-looking girl enough, but by no means
highly gifted in any respect--a girl whose future would be to bloom and
fade unknown in her father's service. But now she knew that she was
indeed beautiful; not only because she had heard it repeatedly in the
crowd of yesterday, or even because Agatha had declared it while braiding
her hair--an inward voice affirmed it, and for her lover's sake she was
happy to believe it.

As a rule, she would have been ready to drop with fatigue after so many
sleepless hours and such severe exertions; but to-day she felt as fresh
as the birds in the trees by the roadside, which greeted the sun with
cheerful twitterings.

"Yes, the world is indeed fair!" thought she; but at that very moment
Andreas's grave voice was heard ordering the bearers to turn down a dark
side alley which led into the street of Hermes, a few hundred paces from
the Rhakotis Canal.

How anxious the good man looked! Her world was not the world of the
Christian freedman; that she plainly understood when the litter in which
Diodoros lay was carried into one of the houses in the side street.

It was a large, plain building, with only a few windows, and those high
up-in fact, as Melissa was presently informed, it was a Christian church.
Before she could express her surprise, Andreas begged her to have a few
minutes' patience; the daemons of sickness were here to be exorcised and
driven out of the sufferer. He pointed to a seat in the vestibule to the
church, a wide but shallow room. Then, at a sign from Andreas, the slaves
carried the litter into a long, low hall with a flat roof.

From where she sat, Melissa could now see that a Christian in priest's
robes, whom they called the exorcist, spoke various invocations over the
sick man, the others listening so attent